


Always Good For You

by BayGrove



Series: Bay Grove [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Small Town, M/M, Slow Build, not going to lie, this fic came from years of watching the Gilmore Girls with my mother
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-04-28 00:05:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5070172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BayGrove/pseuds/BayGrove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean Winchester runs the local Diner in Bay Grove Massachusetts. He lives with his brother, helps Bobby at his shop, and tolerates the small town antics. Things were normal in his life until Castiel Milton moved back into town, and reminded him just how little privacy you have in a place like Bay Grove.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic I'm posting on here, and I'm a little nervous. I know this is a short chapter, but there are more to come. I hope you enjoy!

“Living in a small town...is like living in a large family of rather uncongenial relations. Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it’s perfectly awful, but it’s always good for you.  
-Joyce Dennys

~

Hot steam rose into the air and clung to Dean’s face as he poured more coffee into Uriel’s mug. It was a fairly busy day in the diner, and a tinkling from the small tarnished bell above the door let Dean know it was about to get busier.

Dean had lived in Bay Grove his whole life, just like almost everyone else who lived there. He ran “John’s” a small mom and pop diner, left to him by his own mother and father. The diner was a part of the Winchester family, just as much as he or Sammy, his younger brother were. He couldn’t count the days he had spent with his dad (before the old man had split his car on an oak tree in a drunken stupor a few years ago), in the grease filled air of the kitchen, learning the in’s and out’s of cooking the perfect burger, or a nice stack of pancakes. Now that he ran the place though, he spent most of his time behind the counter, which was fine with him. He liked the interaction, the human connection of making conversation over food.

“Anything else I can get you?” Dean asked Uriel after wiping up the drips of coffee that had fallen on the counter with his dish rag, and then throwing it onto his shoulder.

“Yes actually,” Uriel sniffed, looking at the menu, despite knowing that both he and Dean knew exactly what he wanted, “I think I’ll have an order of eggs, over medium, turkey bacon, and whole wheat toast, no butter.”

Dean shook his head and tutted his tongue, “Don’t go too crazy. Adam! The usual for Mr. Wisdom.”

Adam Milligan had been working in the kitchen, ever since he’d shown up two years ago, announcing that he was Sam and Dean’s half brother. It had caused tension in the town that was not used to anything going amiss, other than the choir for the winter festival getting food poisoning after eating a particularly bad fruit cake from Zachariah’s. Dean had been angry at Adam as a substitute for being angry at his father, and wanted nothing to do with the boy. Luckily though, Ellen Harvelle, a friend of the Winchesters had taken Adam in as her own, insisting however that Dean attempt to make a connection with him. So Dean had gotten a new cook, and two years later Dean was willing to admit, that he liked the kid.

“One stick up the ass special coming right up.” Adam called from the kitchen. Dean gave him a scolding look, while holding back his laughter, in an attempt to keep a good customer.

“May I have a cup of coffee, and one of those scones please?” A gravelly and eerily familiar voice asked, causing Dean to turn around. To say that the sight that greeted him was a surprise would be an understatement.

“Cas? Cas man! What are you doing back in town?” Dean grinned, surprised and a bit taken aback. Castiel Milton was the last person he had expected to see in his diner that morning, decked out in what Dean could only assume was the same trench coat he used to wear in high school. Though he had certainly grown into it since senior year.

Cas smiled slightly, just a slight push at the corners of his mouth and eyes, but it lit up his face none the less, “Michael offered me a job teaching english at the High School. And I’ve found that, while I do enjoy Manhattan, it can be... a bit exhausting.” He paused and took the blueberry scone from Dean’s hands, he then looked up and with a small tilt of his head added, “It’s good to see you Dean.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Dean replied wiping his hands on his apron and going to retrieve the coffee pot, “Unexpected, but good.”

Cas threw Dean a sheepish grin, “Yes, I suppose I didn’t give much warning to my arrival, I’m not even sure Anna knows.” He admitted while Dean handed him a mug and began to pour steaming coffee into it.

Dean chuckled as he wiped a droplet of the coffee off of the pot, “Oh man, be sure to savor having an ass today buddy, because Anna is going to kick it right off of you.”

Castiel smiled and took a sip, then looked back up at Dean, “I will make sure to savor.” After taking another sip, he looked down at his watch, and seemed to perk up, “I would love to keep catching up Dean, but I’m afraid that if I don’t start my commute now I will be late to my first day of work. Then it wouldn’t only be Anna I would need to look out for.” He grinned then poured the rest of his coffee down his throat in one terrifying gulp.

“Jesus Cas! You’re going to kill yourself like that. I didn’t know it was possible for your coffee habits to get more disgusting since I last saw you.” He shook his head, as Cas booked it out of the diner, “We should get together and catch up some time!” He called after him, then smiled when Cas turned and nodded, giving an awkward little thumbs up, before turning once more with a billow of his trench coat to speed walk down the street and towards the high school.

As Dean’s gaze followed Cas down the street, he noticed someone else speeding down the sidewalk, holding a cardboard coffee cup blazoned with the “Brewsday Morning’s logo.

Dean grumbled and put the coffee pot down on the counter before calling to Adam in the kitchen to watch the counter. He wove his way through the diner and out onto the sidewalk.

“Going somewhere asshole?” He called after the human mop that was trying to get away from him as fast as possible. Sam turned slowly on his heel to face Dean, an apologetic look on his face, but Dean was not falling for that, “Are you kidding? You realize I’m your brother right? What, you can’t come to our _family_ diner for your morning cup of coffee? You have to go to that hyperactive elf?”

Sam rolled his eyes, “I’m sorry Dean, but Gabriel’s is right by our place, and you know I don’t like black coffee, and all you have are little sugar packets at the diner, and-”

“No, you know what? Actually, I don’t care, keep drinking your fruity coffee, and I’ll keep drinking my manly coffee, but either way you’re going to pay me for your morning cup of jo.”

“Dean-”

“That’ll be $2.50”

Sam sighed and took out his wallet. “This has got to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done. Here’s three bucks. I expect my fifty cents in 25 pennies and a Maine quarter.” He started to walk away, but then, seeming to remember something, turned around, “By the way, I thought you might want to know that I uh... I think I saw Castiel walking around here earlier.”

“Yeah I know.” Dean said dismissively as he stuffed the three dollars into his pocket.

“You know?” Sam replied, crinkling his face up, incredulously at Dean’s nonchalance.

“Yes. I know. He came into the diner a few minutes ago.”

“And that’s not weird for you?”

“Not at all.” Dean lied with a scoff.

It shouldn’t have been weird, It had been years now since Dean had seen the guy. Sure Dean had been madly, head over heels in love with the guy, and sure he had disappeared seemingly in a puff of smoke the day after graduation without a word, leaving Dean devastated for an embarrassingly extended period of time, but the point still stood that it had been years. Dean was an adult, he was the proprietor of a business, he should not feel like an eighteen year old again, just because his high school... whatever had moved back into town.

He shouldn’t feel like that. That didn’t mean he didn’t though.

It’s not as if he would let Sammy know that though, so after a pause, he added the perfunctory, “Bitch.”

Sam must have taken that as the signal to drop the issue, because he chuckled and replied “Jerk.” Before pointing to dean’s pocket where the money he had just relinquished was poking out, “Don’t spend that all in one place,” He said before turning on his heel. and walking back in the direction he had been headed before Dean had caught him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? A little longer.

“Good morning class” Castiel started, standing in front of the chalkboard where his name was written in large static letters “My name is Mr. Milton, welcome to 10th grade english. If you have any questions, now would be the time to ask them, if not, we can get right into the lesson.”

A sea of hands went up, and Castiel had the sneaking suspicion that the questions were meant as a stall tactic. He answered them anyway, he didn't have much of a choice. “Yes Mr.” He looked at the seating chart “Fitzgerald?”

The string bean of a boy in the front row smiled and pushed some of his floppy hair out of his eyes “I was just wondering what books we would be reading this year”

“Well” Castiel started, and noted the boy’s first name ‘Garth’ was sewn into the ball cap resting on his desk, “We will be starting with Ethan Frome-“ This was met by a chorus of groans from various students across the room, “Gripe all you want, but it’s a very good book, and you might find it relatable. There is quite a bit of needless melodrama, it’s quite like a soap opera. If you look at it right, you may even be able to find it humorous. Plus, there is quite a lot of phallic and yonic imagery, and going by the artwork I’ve seen on most of the desks at this school, that will fit right into your sensibilities.” a few students giggled at this, “All I ask is that you give all of the books we read this year a chance. You don’t have to like them, and there will be ways to express your dislike in your assignments if you wish, but going at them with a fighting chance would be appreciated. Going on, other than Ethan Frome, this year you will also read Beowulf, Macbeth, Great Expectations, Night, All Quiet on the Western Front, and we will be examining certain Bible stories in order to understand their importance in other literary works.”

Almost immediately more hands went up, Castiel sighed, “Yes Mr… Tran?” with four more classes of this, it was going to be a long day.

~

Two hours, Two classes, and what felt like Two Hundred questions later, Castiel walked into the teachers lounge for his lunch break. It wasn't that he didn't like teaching, he loved it, it had been his dream to teach since he’s walked into Mrs. Ellis’ kindergarten class when he was five. He just preferred the teaching part of teaching, not the parts where he was reminded just how much school stressed out the kids. And first days are certainly the days where he remembers that the most. It’s a constant stream of kids asking how he grades, and if he accepts late work, and how they'll be tested, and if he takes extra credit, and you can always practically see the dread in their eyes as they witness the school year looming before them, large, lumbering, and persistent. After about a week they started to get into the swing of it though, and that’s when he’s able to relax, and not feel guilty for the burden he puts on the students lives.

As soon as he got through the threshold of the teachers lounge his nose was assaulted with the acrid stench of cigarette smoke. “Cassy!” the owner of the cigarette called to him, and started to give him an awkward one armed hug.

“Lucifer,” Castiel greeted his aptly named cousin, smiling tightly, “Are you supposed to have that in here?” He asked gesturing to the smoldering cigarette hanging limply from Lucifers lip,

“Ah, not really, but big brother is the only one who really cares.”

Castiel had never been very fond of either of his cousins. Michael, the older however, was an angel compared to Lucifer. Lucifer had always been the one to sneak into Castiel’s room during family events and go through his things, or make rude comments about Castiel’s parent's relationship. Castiel just hoped that he had grown out of that type of behavior now that he was working at the school as the vice principal relative to his brother's position as principal.

“Put it out Luc.” Michael said calmly as he walked into the room. Lucifer sighed and put the cigarette out in what was left at the bottom of his coffee cup.

“Castiel.” Michael smiled a ten thousand watt smile and turned to him, “I’m so glad you could come. We’ve all missed you so much, and I know you're going to make a wonderful addition to the Bay Grove High Family.”

That’s why Castiel had never liked Michael.  He wasn’t rude like his brother, but everything that came out of his mouth felt too shiny and fake, as if his words were laminated.

“I wanted to thank you for offering me the position, it means a lot to me.” Castiel replied.

“Of course, of course” Michael said, placing a hand on his shoulder and guiding him forward, “Here, let me introduce you to a few people.”

Michael walked him over to a group of teachers sitting around a table and talking, Michael gestured first to a young woman with a kind face and wavy blond hair, “This is Amy Pond, she teaches algebra and geometry, so she probably has most of the same students as you. Amy this is Castiel”

Amy smiled warm and disarmingly, “Nice to meet you Cas.”

Michael then continued, gesturing to another woman, slightly older than Amy, with long dark hair hanging around her shoulders, she wore a flannel and jeans, which Castiel would usually consider unprofessional in the workplace, but it seemed as though most of the faculty took a casual approach to their work attire, “This is Lisa Braeden, she teaches freshman English” Lisa Smiled. Last at the table was a stern looking African American man who was hunched over a stack of papers he was somehow already grading, on the first day of the school year, “And finally, Gordon Walker, he teaches Biology and Chemistry here, he’s probably the most dedicated teacher we have at the school, no offense ladies” He said with a quick smile to Lisa and Amy. Gordon looked up slightly in greeting, and then went back to grading.

“Most of the staff use lunch as a time to catch up on work, so they tend to stay in their rooms, but don’t worry you’ll meet them all eventually.” Michael reassured.

“Yes.” Castiel said with a forced smile, “I actually think I may take a page out of their book if you don’t mind Michael, I have some email’s I need to answer and-“

“Oh Castiel, I was wondering if I could ask you a favor.” Michael interrupted.

Castiel groaned inwardly, “Of course.”

“Well you see, normally, one of the history teachers Directs the fall play, picks out the play, casts it, the whole thing, but unfortunately she is on maternity leave right now, so she obviously can't. And I know that you like theater, so I thought you might-“

“Of course Michael. I would love to.” He wouldn’t really love to, but the man had just gotten him a job, so Castiel felt as if he couldn’t refuse.

“Thank you Castiel, I knew I could count on you.” Michael smiled, finished the last sip of his coffee, and walked out of the room. Castiel sighed and watched him as he left.

“You just got played so bad Cassy.” Lucifer chided from the back of the room.

“Yes. I know.” Castle sighed and followed Michaels lead, leaving the room to head back to his classroom.

～

Castiel squared his shoulders and knocked on the large wooden door to the dance studio, he hoped it was late enough that Anna would not be teaching a class. Dean hadn’t been exaggerating when he said his sister was going to kick his ass. He knew he should have let her know sooner, but the whole thing had gotten away from him. He had been so stressed out about finding a place to stay, and figuring out his lesson plan, and thinking about what he would do if he saw Dean again that he had forgotten to let anyone know he would be back.

Well he hadn’t forgotten to tell everyone. Some he hadn’t told on purpose.

Suddenly the large sliding door scraped open and Anna stuck her head out, the warm afternoon sun bouncing off her hair and her small features pinched in surprise, “What the hell? Cas?”

“That seems to be the general reaction today.” Cas smiled as Anna jumped on him, wrapping her arms around him tightly and shoving her face into his neck.

“What the heck why are you back? There are no major holidays coming up, and last time I checked, mother is, unfortunately, still breathing, so what’s up?” She looked up at him from where her arms still had a death grip on his shoulders, a brilliant smile streaking her face.

“Well... I moved back.”

Anna was silent for a few moments.

“Anna-”

“ _You moved back_!? Am I the last person you told? What the hell?!”

“Well, that’s the thing, I haven’t told anyone, other than Michael of course and-”

Anna made a small shrieking noise akin to the noise a cat makes when you step on its tail and interrupted him, “You told _Michael_ , the man who I’m honestly not entirely sure isn’t a mid 80’s department store mannequin pretending to be our second cousin, before you told me, your favorite sister?”

“ _Only_ sister,” Castiel corrected childishly, getting him a punch on the arm for his effort, “and the only reason he knows is because he’s the reason I’m back. He got me a job at the high school.”

“Oh my gosh, this is real, I’m so happy. You’re back in Bay Grove. I bet Gabe shit himself.”

“I haven’t gone to see him yet.”

“Aw, came to see your only, though nevertheless favorite sister first? I’m honored.”

“Of course.” Castiel chuckled and rolled his eyes.

Anna was silent for a moment and he could sense what was coming. He had been dreading this part since the bell had rung signalling the end of classes. He scraped his foot back and forth across the ground restlessly and played with a piece of string in his pocket while she studied his face.

“Have you gone to see Dean yet?”

And there it was.

“Yes. I went into the diner this morning for a coffee before school.”

“And how was that?”

Castiel didn’t know how to answer her question. He had been asking himself the same question all day, after fleeing the diner this morning. Was it good? Was it bad? Castiel wasn’t sure how those types of things are normally supposed to go. It was the first time he had ever reunited with a long estranged first (unrequited) love. “It was... strange. He’s all grown up now. Though, I suppose that’s to be expected." Castiel paused for a moment, then smiled, "He looks good with laugh lines. It felt like a million years had gone by since I’d seen him, but also like I’d seen him just yesterday.”

“How did he take seeing you?”

“I’m not sure, he seemed normal. Told me he wanted to catch up.”

“Well do you want to catch up with him?”

Another question Castiel had been haranguing himself with all day. Anna always had a way of knowing what he was thinking. People always thought they were twins when they were little, not because they looked alike, (because they didn’t, Cas looked more like their mother, while Anna looked more like their father) but because they were always finishing each other's sentences and spending all of their time together, and because they enjoyed most of the same things. Their favorite book throughout their entire childhood was ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’. Though, Castiel liked it for all the funny ways it used language, and Anna liked it for the pretty pen and ink drawings. “Yes. No. I’m not sure. That was ten years ago Anna, I’m worried that things will be different.”

Anna rolled her eyes and pinched his arm, “They _will_ be different Castiel. You're both different people now than you were back then. But that doesn't mean things will be bad.”

“I suppose you're right.” He took a deep breath and made himself smile, “Now! Would you like to accompany me to Gabriel’s? I’m sure I’ll need a backup stomach for all of the pastries he is going to force feed me.” Gabriel was famous for making his loved ones taste test all of his new concoctions, and after last thanksgiving’s ‘turkey and stuffin’ in a muffin’ fiasco, Castiel was sure to never go a visit to Gabriel’s alone.

Anna laughed turning to go back into the studio “Sure, let me lock up and then we’ll head out.” A few minutes later she came back out with a coat on and her keys in hand, “Let's go... So, have you seen Mother yet?” She asked after they had walked about a block.

“No. I’m hoping that I can just ignore her until either: _She_ dies and _I_ have to face people asking me why we weren't close at her funeral, or _I_ die, and _she_ has to face the prosecutor asking her why we weren't close at the trial for my murder investigation.”

“Smart move.” Anna nodded, and then, after a few moments added, “We have healthy family dynamics.”

 


	3. Chapter 3

It was a week after Castiel had first walked into Dean’s diner, and though Cas had yet to take Dean up on his offer to “catch up some time” he _had_ made John’s his regular stop on his way to school every morning, and Dean liked to count that as a win.

It was only slightly affecting Dean’s work habits.

When Cas came in, he got Dean’s undivided attention. Cas didn’t seem to notice, but his other customers did. Which is why Dean was stuck being interrogated by Lilith while she took her break from the boutique.

“But why is he back?” She prodded, pointing her fork at Dean, a gob of egg yolk hanging off the end, swaying back and forth.

“Michael got his a job at the high school. Can you _please_ just eat our dinner and go back to your shop?” Dean was exasperated. It had been like this for the past thirty minutes, and it was times like this that he really hated living in a small town, it was truly none of her business. Of course he seemed to be the only one who understood that.

“I am a paying customer, and I’m not done with my french toast yet.”

“You understand that it is very inconvenient to make breakfast food during the dinner rush right?”

She smiled before shoving a bite of french toast into her mouth, not pausing to swallow before asking her next question, “But why did he leave in the first place?”

Dean groaned.

Though, it’s not as if it were a bad question. He didn’t know why Cas had left. He hadn’t really told anyone. Dean had always assumed that Cas would stay in Bay Grove; that they would grow up together, just as they had been doing for the first eighteen years of their life. But sure enough, as soon as they had thrown their caps in the air, Cas had packed his bags and headed off the the big apple, without so much as a word of warning. It had hurt, more as Cas’s best friend, than as his ‘whatever’ to not even get so much as a goodbye. But Dean had cowboyed up, and gotten over it. Though, just because the pain was gone, didn’t mean the curiosity was.

The bell above the door tinkled, and in walked Cas.

“Speak of the devil!” Lilith mumbled, and Dean shot her a look.

“Oh! Would you look at that? Last bite of french toast down the hatch! Looks like you’re out of here.”

Lilith sighed, and dropped cash for her food on the counter, “Catch you later lover!” She said as she sauntered her way out of the diner.

He flipped her off.

“Hey Cas, what can I get you?” He asked, wiping down the counter for him.

Cas dropped a large pile of what appeared to be heavy packets where Lilith’s plate had just been, and then sat down at one of the red leather stools, “Just the largest cup of coffee you have please.”

“I’m gonna have to cut you off at some point here Cas.” Dean said, but poured the coffee anyway.

Cas rolled his eyes and took the cup, taking a large sip, and visibly relaxing. “So that woman,” He seemed to pause and consider, “She is your... significant other?”

Benny, who had been watching Dean’s previous conversation with Lilith from the other end of the counter, actually spit out the milkshake he was drinking, and made a little choking noise. Dean snorted. Lilith had come to Bay Grove about five years ago to open a small clothing boutique, and she was quite possibly, the most insidious woman he had ever met. Sure she had caught his eye when she first moved to Bay Grove, but then she had opened her mouth.

“Ah, no. That would be a definite no.” Dean replied and handed Benny, who was still choking a little, a glass of water, and then turned to make Cas’s coffee.

“I apologize, I didn’t mean to offend.” Castiel said, awkward, his his face going red in a way that made Dean feel like he was 17 again.

Dean smiled and put Cas’s steaming mug of coffee in front of him “It’s no problem, she’s just a customer, an overly affectionate customer.”

“I see” Castiel smiled and then began looking over the packet’s strewn about him on the counter.

Dean studiously ignored the way that Cas pulled at his bottom lip with his teeth, and furrowed his brow in concentration. Instead he poured more lemonade for Chuck who was sitting next to Benny on the other side of the counter. He didn’t look up when Cas sighed, looking like a lost puppy, with his shoulders hunched over, instead he cleaned the few dishes that were left in the sink. But when Castiel had run his hands over his head in frustration so many times that his hair was standing up on end, making him look disheveled and dejected, Dean finally gave in.

“Cas man, you’re stressing me out, what is giving you so much trouble?” he asked, tossing a dishrag over his shoulder and going over to where Cas was seated.

“Michael appointed me as the director of the school’s fall play, and I am trying to figure which of these plays would be best suited for our purposes.”

Dean scoffed, “He’s already got you doing all that right off the bat?” that sounded just like Michael.

“Yes. I didn’t feel as though I could say no.”

“Well what options do you have?” Dean asked.

Castiel sighed, “Shakespeare’s Macbeth, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and Almost Maine, by John Cariani.”

“Almost Maine? You should totally do Almost Maine!” Dean said, genuinely excited.

“You know almost maine?” Castiel asked skeptically.

“Don’t sound so surprised, why can’t I know the play? I’m an intellectual.” Actually Sam had dragged him to see the show when Jess was in it a few years ago, but Cas didn’t need to know that.

Cas looked a bit panicked “Oh no, that’s not what I meant, I had just never heard of it until today, but if you like it...”

“No, Castiel, don’t listen to this idiot” Chuck chimed in, ignoring Dean’s protests, “The Crucible is a classic, it’ll be great for the kids, teach them about history and theater.”

“I’m sorry,” replied Dean, “Does this look like a public forum to you?”

“I’m just saying.”

“If this is up for public discussion now, I would like to throw in my support for Macbeth!” Called Adam from where he was making french fries in the kitchen.

“Well, if you're disagreeing with me then it is not up for public discussion!” Dean called back to him, and that’s when the floodgates opened.

The next thirty minutes turned into an entire debate between all the customers in the diner over which play Cas should choose, most people siding with Chuck and the Crucible while Cas looked on bemused.

_“The crucible is a masterpiece of allegory about two poignant times in america’s history and-”_

“Thank you everybody-”

_“There is murder dean, it’s like a Shakespearean action film-”_

“Thank-”

_“and furthermore-”_

“If you’d just-”

_“that doesn’t even include the fact that-”_

“Everyone shut the hell up!” Dean shouted over the din of the diner, “What were you saying Cas?”

Cas smiled at Dean “Thank you Dean, and thank you all for your input, I will take it all into consideration. But unfortunately, as much as I love a debate, I must get going” Then he turned to Dean, and handed him his money “Thank you for the coffee, and the...” He made a vague hand gesture are the rest of the customers who were still debating among themselves the benefits of miller versus shakespeare, “...input, it really helped.”

“Yeah man, anytime” Dean grinned sheepishly, as Castiel gathered up his things in a loose pile. Cas gave him one last smile and then walked out the door, shouting a quick ‘goodbye everybody’ before stepping out onto the pavement.

Dean watched him as he left, and then turned and began wiping down the counter, getting ready for closing time. Dean always closed up the diner early on the days when a town meeting was scheduled. God knows Dean would never go to one of the damn things, but everyone else in the town seemed to think they were important enough to merit a visit, so there was really no point in keeping the diner open, even now people were putting on their coats, finishing up their last bites of pie, or mac and cheese, or whatever else they were eating, and heading out the door.

Dean was about to flip the sign on the front of the door from ‘open’ to ‘closed’ when Cas came barreling back in.

“Cas what’re you doing?”

“I’m so sorry to ask Dean, but may I please use your phone? My car broke down and I need to call a mechanic.”

Dean flipping the sign, and then brushed off his hands, looking up at Cas as he did so, “Do you want me to take a look at it?” He asked, “Might save you some money.”

Cas’s shoulders slumped, relieved of whatever tension had been there before, “That would be very nice thank you, only if you’re sure you don’t mind?”

“Of course not, just give me a second to close up shop.”

~

Dean stood next to the faded Chevrolet Caprice trying to figure out what was wrong. Well other than the fact that Cas drove a Caprice. Dean couldn’t understand how the same people who made his baby made this monstrosity. Finally he found the source of the problem. “It looks like you’ve got a broken timing belt.”

Cas looked down at the dated vehicle, worry and stress leaking into his voice, “I’m assuming that’s not good?”

“It should be an easy enough fix, but there’s nothing we can do about it tonight.” He replied, letting the hood fall back into place with a satisfying click.

Cas sighed and rubbed a hand over his forehead, in a way that suggested he was beginning to get quite the headache. Dean felt sorry for him.

“Hey, listen, why don’t you let me call Bobby, he’ll come take care of the car tomorrow. And as for tonight, I can give you a lift home.”

Cas smiled regretfully, “While I really do appreciate the offer Dean, I promised my brother I would go with him to the town meeting this afternoon. And I’d hate to back out on him less than two weeks after failing to tell him I had moved back to town.”

He didn’t want to leave Cas without a ride home. After a few seconds Dean knew what he needed to do. He grimaced and steeled himself for what he was about to offer, “I will... go to the town meeting with you.. So that you have a ride home tonight. I wouldn’t want to leave you stranded. Even if that does mean listening to Zachariah’s bullshit for an hour.”

“Are you sure Dean? I don’t want to be an inconvenience.”

“Nah man, don’t worry about it.”

Cas’s face lit up with a blinding smile, “Thank you Dean.”

Dean decided he couldn’t really regret offering to help, not when it meant he got to see Cas smile like that.

 


End file.
